Intel has long struggled to adapt to the changing realities of the I.T marketplace: the company that dominated the P.C processor market space had fumbled the transition to a mobile-centric computing market, losing market share to ARM licensees. Now, with the introduction of Clover Trail — officially unveiled Friday in San Francisco — Intel is looking to reverse this trend.
Officially called the Atom Z2760, the 32nm dual-core chip is clocked at 1.8 GHz with a 533 MHz GPU.
“This is just the beginning of Intel’s effort in the tablet market, and our goal is to deliver products that fit the spectrum of evolving needs of both consumers and business users without compromising on compatibility, experience or battery life,” said Erik Reid, general manager, Application Processor Platforms for Intel’s Mobile and Communications Group, in a prepared statement.
Intel says it has a strong lineup of OEMs on board to put these new chips in tablets. According to press materials, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Samsung, Dell, Fujitsu, and HP are amongst the bigger players pledging support to Intel’s new chip.
In addition to low-power consumption, Intel says Clover Trail will allow for a new era of thinner and lighter tablets. At the launch event, an executive from Intel showed off a Clover Trail-powered reference device that was 8.7mm thin and weighed under 1.5 pounds.
“New low-power technology gives us the computing power, the flexibility, to be in both parts of Windows, and to put it in really cool, sexy devices,” HP’s Director of Consumer Product Marketing, Fredrik Hamberger, said at the launch event.
More information is expected as the Windows 8 launch date gets closer.
